Users of computer networks today have witnessed an incredible increase in performance capabilities, including speed and integrity of data transfer. Ethernet comprises one type of computer network that offers many varieties in terms of capabilities, including high speed networks such as 40 Gigabit Ethernet (e.g., 40 GbE) and 100 Gigabit Ethernet (e.g., 100 GbE), among others. Such Ethernet networks support sending Ethernet frames at 40 and 100 gigabits per second over multiple 10 Gbit/s or 25 Gbit/s lanes. The 40/100 Gigabit Ethernet standards include a number of different Ethernet physical layer (PHY) specifications, including a criteria where the bit error rate (BER) is less than or equal to 10-12 at the MAC/PCS service interface. To achieve (and/or exceed in meeting) this criteria, various forward error correction schemes have been developed, each representing a compromise in certain parameters such as total latency, net coding gain, burst error correcting capacity, and/or hardware complexity.